$ = 3.55 Sol. Exchange dollars in Peru, not in USA.
OK, if you are a traveler and have NOT yet done Peru, you
should. It is a lovely country; Machu Picchu is unique,
spectacular. For American and Canadians (others will
benefit from this report too), I arranged this week-long
(semi-guided) tour for less than $1000 (incl. single
supplement) with www.marnellatours.com who represent Fiesta
Tours in Peru: www.fiestatours.com
You can do the same, WITH the adjustments I listed below,
OR arrange your own itinerary for about 2/3rd the
price I paid. Situated near the Equator, Peru is not
tropical country, though there are said to be only 2
seasons: dry (June, July, August) and wet, as in other
countries near the Equator. Cold air from the Pacific and
Andes make the climate varied. (Peru is on its way to
spring now (NOV).) Pack a heavy shirt as it might get cold
in Cusco in the eve, also pack a windbreaker/rain gear, as
it might rain at places. A mosquito repellent like OFF may
also come handy, depending when you visit. Take the cheaper
Aero Continente, not American Airline, flight to save.
1. PERU is on the western shores of South America,
bordering the Pacific on the west, Ecuador to the north,
Colombia to northeast, Brazil to the east, Bolivia to
southeast, and Chile to the south. The Andes mountains get
serious in Peru and continue south to Chile.
2. MARNELLA/FIESTA TOURS, AS IS.
DAY 1: You are picked up at the airport and then taken to a
hotel in Miraflores, the trendy section of Lima. The
breakfast is included. You are left alone until Day 2,
when you are brought to the Airport for your included
flight to Cusco.
DAY 2: In Cusco, arrive at 10:30 am, the rest of the day free.
Day 3: In Cusco, 1:30pm city tour for 4-5 hours.
Day 4: To Machu Picchu. Day starts at 5am, ends about
8:30pm.
Day 5: In Cusco, free.
Day 6: Pickup at 10:30am to airport for flight to Lima.
Otherwise free.
Day 7: Lima to Miami.
As you can see, there are lots of "free" spots in this
itinerary. Airport pickup/delivery is fine, the guides are
very good, hotels OK, breakfast is included every morning,
also the lunch in Machu Picchu tour. By making the changes
I suggest here, Fiesta/Marnella can make theirīs a much
more attractive package, for almost the same price or not
significantly more. Or use these guidelines to prepare your
own.
============================================
SUGGESTED CHANGES to FIESTA/MARNELLA
DAY 1. For people who arrive in Lima in the morn, ASK for
an afternoon CITY TOUR of Lima, incl. the city center, at
least the 2 ornate buildings--a cathedral and a yellow
official building next to it--in the trendy Miraflores,
plus such sights as the Park of Love. If you are traveling
on your own, note that Peru is full of HOSTALs that often
better situated than hotels. Use them, also for better
potential friends.
---------------------------------
DAYS 2,3,4,5. These days are spent in Cusco, with lots of
empty spots.
1) HOTEL in CUSCO. First, I found the hotel EL PUMA
unsatisfactory. It is neat and clean and people are
friendly. HOWEVER, the hotel is 15-20 min walking (uphill)
from the beautiful Plaza de Armas, the center of activity
in Cusco. At 13,000 ft altitude, this ainīt fun. FIESTA
should book SINGLE travelers in a hotel at or near the
Plaza. Although taxis are numerous and cheap, the
spontaneity is lost, and it is a hassle to do this with a
taxi every time you want to climb there. If you travel with
the tour, insist on a hotel on or closer to the Armas Sq.
If you are doing this alone, find a hostal nearer to the
Armas Sq.
2) SHIFT DAYS OF CUSCO CITY & MACHU PICCHU TOURs. The city
tour could be done in the afternoon of Day 2, after you
arrive. THEN the full-day Machu Picchu tour could be
switched from Day 4 to Day 3, releasing both the wasted
Days 4 and 5 for something else. Day 4 should be still
left free in Cusco for leisurely sightseeing, to visit
Museum of Inca, to socialize. Then:
OPTION A) CUT 1 day from the package, return a day early to
Lima, to home, AND so reduce the package price.
OPTION B) Keep Day 5, ADD Day 6 for a 2 days/1 night walk
on the INCA TRAIL off Machu Picchu tour, return to Cusco,
complete tour as arranged.
OPTION C) Keep Day 5, ADD Day 6 to visit the city of PUNA
and Lake TITICACA southeast from Cuzco. The trip to there
can be by a) bus (6-7 hours), b) train (10 hours), or c)
flight. If the latter, an afternoon tour of one of the
desirable islands in the lake can follow upon arrival. The
hotel that night would replace the hotel in Cusco, the
return flight Puna to Lima would replace the flight from
Cusco to Lima. In short, this addition would come with the
only extra: bus ride/flight Cusco to Titicaca, 2) extra
day, only if travel by bus. The tour would then conclude
as arranged, or the return to Miami can be on the same day
as the flight from Puno to Lima to save even more.
==================================================
Now a bit of useful info, however you want to travel.
LIMA. There was considerable effort in recent years to
renovate Lima to an international city, and I must say the
effort is successful. Lima is one of the cleanest large
cities I have seen. The parks are well-attended, streets
spotless; Miraflores is both cosmopolitan and Latin and
trendy. If you are on your own, walk back and forth the
fashionable Miraflores district all the way to the sea, to
the Park of Love; allocate one day to City Center (take a
taxi there, as it is 5 km to Miraflores); spend the
evenings in Miraflores. The cafes in Miraflores are nice
but are expensive. For exquisite Peruvian food turn into
the small Manuel Bonilla street right across from McDonald
in Miroflores, KFC at the entry. (This is the street of
our hotel Faraone.) Walk about 15 yards to the restaurant
La Chicharroneria on your left. The owner Martha and I
became hugging friends over my dinner. She is excellent
cook; try broiled goat meat with rice and bean puree, also
the grilled pork with sweet potatoes, the drink made of
purple corn (looks like grape juice or red wine), and top
it off with her lemon pie.
CUSCO. In Spanish (we were told) Cuzco--with z--means some
sort of unflattering context to a dog, which the Spaniards
apparently chose as an insult to the locals. Cusco--with
s--however, means "navel," in native Inkan language of
QECHUA, to symbolize center of activity. The natives refer
to the city as QOSQO, the capital of the Inkan Empire, that
existed from 11th to 16th centuries.
If you are on your own, allocate a free day to walk around
the Cusco, visiting the Cathedral, Inca Museum . . . all
around the Central Square uphill on Ave. de Sol. At the
other end of the same is the Artisans sector. Internet
cafe is right across from the Post Office on the same Ave,
below Temple of Sol. It costs 30 to cents per hour, the
cheapest I have seen, AND the connections are all fast
cable. Cusco has even more better-situated hostels. The
hostel people will also help with tours. The official ISBN
Hostel is (about) across from the Temple of Sol. A Swiss
guy I asked said he paid--for a single room at a hostel in
Cusco--10 Sol, less than $3, per night.
MACHU PICCHU. As for Machu (Old) Picchu
(Mountain)--discovered in 1911--it is as unique in South
America as is the also lost/found Petra (Jordan) in the
Mid-East. Both are complete cities with all the
institutions. The Machu name actually applies to the
precipitous rock/mountain across from the well-known steep
rock outcrop associated with Machu Picchu. That rock is
actually the WAYNA (young) PICCHU. The conjunction where
these unbelievably steep and tall rocks join is actually
several gorges at once. Though as big as the Rockies, the
scene looks strangely different.
TRAIN. You get up at 5am for the tour and have breakfast;
you are picked up at 6 and taken to the train station; the
train departs at 7:30 and arrives at the bus station in
Machu Picchu 4 hours later. The first hour of train ride
is slow, as the train must conquer very steep mountains
(13,000 feet) framing Cusco. To do this, the train climbs
the side of the mountain in one direction, stops, jumps
tracks to opposite direction at higher elevation,and after
4-5 times of this type of unusual maneuver, rises high
enough to cross the mountain to the high plains to the
east, and over the 100km to Machu Picchu drops some 5,000
feet in elevation. (However, you would not believe this
after you arrive in MP, for the place is surrounded by the
most precipitous rock formations I have seen, like a series
of Rocks of Gibraltar (or Yosemite) in all directions. A
small creek that accompanies the railroad tracks gradually
grows into something like an angry Colorado river as you go
along. It is named the BILKANOTA (later also named
URUBAMBA) river. The high plains and farming communities
continue until last one hour of the train trip, where
gradually the lower slopes of the very steep rocks on both
sides of the track turn into tropėcal rain forest,
announcing the beginnings of the Amazonian rain-forest on
the west. (Indeed, it is possible to ride the Amazon river
from nearly 3,646 km from Belem, Brazil on the Atlantic
side to IQUITOS northeast of Peru, passing Manaus, Brazil
at only the 930 km mark. I already did a small part of the
Amazon from Belem; am planning the part Belem to Manaus in
the near future.)
NOTE: To imagine a rain forest, especially on steep slopes,
look at the movie The Medicine Man(?), with Sean Connery,
taken in the Amazon. In the beginning, as they walk along
a trail, the girl slides down a precipitous underbrush to
land on the canopy of a tree, dangling 30 yards over a
river. That scene could have been made here in Peru--yes
also in the Daintree rain-forest north of Cairns,
Australia, or in the Congo.
AT THE SITE, INCA TRAIL. After the 4-hour train ride, there
is also a 20-min bus ride to the entry to the park. This
part can be done on foot in about 1 hour, the bus makes it
in about 20 minutes, climbing hairpin turns. The real
walking starts after the gate. Ours was to the ruins
nearby the gate, for a total of about 3 (very informative)
hours, covering some truly spectacular and unique--scenery.
However, you can also go on a 2 or 7-day walking tour of
the INCA TRAIL. You can do this alone too, joining other
people with similar intentions along the way.
NOTE: The danger warnings and cautions are overstated to
make sure you use common sense. Of course do. (West
Africa, especially Nigeria, is much more dangerous, as also
parts of Colombia, Venezuela, and Brazil.) Police forces
are unobtrusively present everywhere. Stick with (many)
other folks traveling alone or as couples. Inform yourself
about more details about Peru in Lonely Planet before your
trip. English is not commonly spoken except by the
hostels, hotels, tour guides, and street-smart kids.
SUMMARY. 1) By making the changes I suggested above,
Fiesta/Marnella can make this a much more attractive
package, for almost the same price or not significantly
more.
2) By planning carefully beforehand, you can still fit this
tour to less than 10 days, including 2 days for the Inca
Trail AND 2 days for Lake Titicaca. Go for it.
Addendum. Early chronicles of Peruvian history
proposed that the settlement of Machu Picchu came about as
the Incas attempted to escape the Spanish onslaught and
so hid in the difficult-to-access jungle and mountains. A
more recent chronicle instead suggests that Machu Picchu
was indeed an trade outpost in the jungle, as the Incas
became engaged in trade with other tribes in the Amazon,
much like St. Louis served in this capacity in American
history.